The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown

Developer: Interplay	Graphics:
Publisher: Electronic Arts	Sound:
Year: 1986	Difficulty:
Genre: RPG	Replay value:
Number of players: 1	My overall rating:	7/10

Your mission is to recruit a band of adventurers to hunt down a wicked sorcerer who spreads chaos in the city of Skara Brae. . . .

This is really what I would call an old-school role-playing game. You spend the first few hours to scrutinize the manual to learn the story, the subtleties between the different characters' races and classes and, especially, you have to scribble your own maps everywhere during exploration.

To enjoy this game, you really need to take time and get into it. Such titles were rather designed for purists. Today, it is true that RPGs (and games in general) tend to be easier to access and more ergonomic. No need to go over 50 pages of instructions, you just load it, play, take a quick look on the internet whenever you're stuck. That's it.
The player has become a spectator. It's a shame.

Well, on the other hand, my own group of adventurers is decimated in 10 minutes. My maps are inaccurate. I have the patience of an ox on amphetamines. . . .

Maybe progress is for me.

Places to download:
Planet Emulation
The Game Archives
The Old Computer

Other sites of interest:
The Adventurer's Guild

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